People who don’t know how to read polls falsely claim that Bush is now more popular than Obama

Wednesday

Jun 12, 2013 at 5:15 PM

Under the headline “Bush More Popular Than Obama,” the right-wing Web site Breitbart.com carried THIS STORY the other day:

In a Gallup tracking poll released Tuesday, former-President George W. Bush currently stands with a favorability rating of 49%, compared to 46% who see the 43rd president unfavorably. Meanwhile, another Gallup poll shows President Obama with only a 47% percent approval rating, with 44% disapproving.

But there are several big problems with that claim, not the least of which is that it’s an apples-and-oranges comparison. Favorability ratings and job-approval ratings, as measured by Gallup, are two different things.

For example, the ...

Read more

Pat Cunningham

Under the headline “Bush More Popular Than Obama,” the right-wing Web site Breitbart.com carried THIS STORY the other day:

In a Gallup tracking poll released Tuesday, former-President George W. Bush currently stands with a favorability rating of 49%, compared to 46% who see the 43rd president unfavorably. Meanwhile, another Gallup poll shows President Obama with only a 47% percent approval rating, with 44% disapproving.

But there are several big problems with that claim, not the least of which is that it’s an apples-and-oranges comparison. Favorability ratings and job-approval ratings, as measured by Gallup, are two different things.